State v. Wilkerson

2020 UT App 160, 478 P.3d 1048
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedNovember 27, 2020
Docket20190633-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 2020 UT App 160 (State v. Wilkerson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Wilkerson, 2020 UT App 160, 478 P.3d 1048 (Utah Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

2020 UT App 160

THE UTAH COURT OF APPEALS

STATE OF UTAH, Appellee, v. DEVIN LEE WILKERSON, Appellant.

Opinion No. 20190633-CA Filed November 27, 2020

Fourth District Court, Provo Department The Honorable M. James Brady No. 181402439

Bryson King and Douglas J. Thompson, Attorneys for Appellant Sean D. Reyes and Jonathan S. Bauer, Attorneys for Appellee

JUDGE RYAN M. HARRIS authored this Opinion, in which JUDGES DAVID N. MORTENSEN and DIANA HAGEN concurred.

HARRIS, Judge:

¶1 Under Utah law, persons who spend time incarcerated in county jails may be required to reimburse the county for “the cost of incarceration.” See Utah Code Ann. § 76-3-201(6) (LexisNexis 2017) (the Pay-to-Stay Statute). After pleading guilty to one misdemeanor count of drug possession, Devin Lee Wilkerson was ordered to pay $1,939.65 to Utah County for the cost of his 111-day pre-plea detention in the Utah County Jail. Wilkerson appeals that restitution order, asserting that the Pay- to-Stay Statute does not authorize reimbursement for jail time served prior to conviction. He also asserts that the court’s restitution order violated principles of due process. We affirm. State v. Wilkerson

BACKGROUND

¶2 One night in August 2018, Wilkerson and a friend were skateboarding in a road near an intersection. A police officer patrolling nearby saw the two men and stopped them, believing that their skateboarding in the street was unlawful. The officer soon discovered that there was a valid warrant out for Wilkerson’s arrest. The officer then arrested Wilkerson, searched him, and found methamphetamine on his person. Wilkerson was booked into the Utah County Jail that same day, and a few days later the State charged him with drug possession—which in his case was charged as a third-degree felony due to prior convictions—and possession of drug paraphernalia, a class B misdemeanor. Soon thereafter, after spending approximately sixteen days in jail, Wilkerson was released on his own recognizance while the case proceeded.

¶3 Several weeks later, Wilkerson failed to appear at a scheduled hearing in the case, and the court issued a warrant for his arrest. Wilkerson was subsequently arrested and again booked into the Utah County Jail, where he spent more than ninety additional days before he posted bail. In total, Wilkerson ended up spending 111 days in the Utah County Jail, all of which took place pre-plea and pre-sentencing.

¶4 Eventually, Wilkerson negotiated a plea agreement with the State, under which the State agreed to reduce the drug possession count to a class A misdemeanor and to dismiss the paraphernalia count, and Wilkerson agreed to plead to the reduced charge of attempted drug possession. The court sentenced Wilkerson on the same day he entered his plea. The court ordered Wilkerson to serve a one-year jail sentence, but suspended that sentence and placed Wilkerson on probation. Among other conditions of probation, the court ordered Wilkerson to “serve 111 days in jail,” but gave Wilkerson credit

20190633-CA 2 2020 UT App 160 State v. Wilkerson

for the 111 days he had already served, and did not require Wilkerson to spend any additional time in jail.

¶5 At the sentencing hearing, which took place in July 2019, Wilkerson’s counsel anticipated that the State would ask for reimbursement under the Pay-to-Stay Statute, noting that “because [Wilkerson] has now been convicted of a misdemeanor, he is subject to restitution requirements” under that statute. Counsel noted that the statute exempted individuals who did not have “the ability to pay,” but acknowledged that Wilkerson had the ability to make reimbursement payments. Instead of asserting that the statute was inapplicable to Wilkerson on indigency grounds, counsel asked “for the Court to make a finding that [the Pay-to-Stay Statute] does not apply in a case where a defendant does not receive further time after conviction that results in incarceration at a county jail facility.” The State took the opposite position, asserting that the statute authorized reimbursement even for pre-conviction incarceration, so long as the defendant was eventually convicted of the crime that was holding him in jail and sentenced to serve a period of time that included the time already served.

¶6 After hearing arguments of counsel, the court declined to immediately rule on the issue, ordering Wilkerson’s sentence stayed until it could resolve the reimbursement issue. The court invited the parties to submit briefing on the question of the applicability of the Pay-to-Stay Statute, which invitation both parties accepted. After reviewing the parties’ briefing, the court sided with the State, and issued a written order commanding Wilkerson to pay restitution for the 111 days he served in jail, an amount the State computed to be $1,939.65.

¶7 Wilkerson then filed a motion to vacate the restitution portion of his sentence under rule 22(e) of the Utah Rules of Criminal Procedure, asserting that the restitution order was illegal and that it violated principles of due process. However,

20190633-CA 3 2020 UT App 160 State v. Wilkerson

Wilkerson advanced only the same argument that he had advanced before, in his post-sentence brief: that he was “not subject to” the Pay-to-Stay Statute because “he was not actually incarcerated at the county jail following sentencing.” Thus, the only asserted due process violation he identified was the court’s application of the statute to him under these circumstances. The court denied Wilkerson’s motion in a written order.

ISSUES AND STANDARDS OF REVIEW

¶8 Wilkerson appeals the restitution order, and asks us to review two issues. First, he asserts that the district court incorrectly interpreted and applied the Pay-to-Stay Statute. “We review questions of statutory interpretation for correctness, affording no deference to the district court’s legal conclusions.” Grimm v. DxNA LLC, 2018 UT App 115, ¶ 14, 427 P.3d 571 (quotation simplified). Second, Wilkerson appeals the denial of his post-sentencing motion that invoked both rule 22(e) of the Utah Rules of Criminal Procedure and due process. We review the court’s denial of that motion for correctness. See Salt Lake City Corp. v. Jordan River Restoration Network, 2012 UT 84, ¶ 105, 299 P.3d 990 (“Generally, due process issues present questions of law that we review for correctness.” (quotation simplified)); see also State v. Walton, 2019 UT App 187, ¶ 14, 455 P.3d 1066 (“We review the denial of a rule 22(e) motion for correctness.”).

ANALYSIS

I

¶9 Wilkerson first asserts that the Pay-to-Stay Statute, by its terms, does not apply to him, and that the district court therefore erred when it ordered him to reimburse the county for the time he spent in jail. That statute, in relevant part, reads as follows:

20190633-CA 4 2020 UT App 160 State v. Wilkerson

In addition to any other sentence the court may impose, . . . the defendant shall pay restitution to the county for the cost of incarceration and costs of medical care provided to the defendant while in the county correctional facility before and after sentencing if . . . the defendant is convicted of criminal activity that results in incarceration in the county correctional facility.

Utah Code Ann. § 76-3-201(6)(a)(i) (LexisNexis 2017). Wilkerson interprets this statute as authorizing reimbursement only for jail time served following conviction and sentence. The State, by contrast, sees no such restriction in the statutory language, and asserts that the district court correctly ordered restitution here.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

ROA General v. Salt Lake City
2025 UT App 122 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 2025)
Cottonwood Heights v. Hon. Johnson
2025 UT App 114 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 2025)
Hinton v. Midwest Family Mutual Insurance
2025 UT 4 (Utah Supreme Court, 2025)
RMB Inc. v. Celotto
2024 UT App 188 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 2024)
State v. Robinson
2023 UT 25 (Utah Supreme Court, 2023)
Park City Premier Properties v. Silver Summit Esta
2023 UT App 121 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 2023)
Carrell v. State
2023 UT App 93 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 2023)
State v. Murray
2023 UT App 52 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 2023)
In re C.N.
2023 UT App 41 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 2023)
State v. Hurwitz
2021 UT App 112 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 2021)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2020 UT App 160, 478 P.3d 1048, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-wilkerson-utahctapp-2020.